Blind Item #9 – Old Hollywood Blind

In the annals of horrible stage moms, the foreign-born mother to this then almost A-list child and teen star who later made the transition to A+ list leading lady is among the worst

. She acted as her pimp, accompanying her from casting couch to casting couch to sleep with men as old as the father of the actress. Two famous A+ list Oscar winning/nominees were among her sex partners.

I also think the blind means who she was pimped out to in terms of casting couch old men, not who her chosen lovers were…so I nominate Rex Harrison as one of the men who abused her. He was born in 1908; Wood in 1938. As a child, she starred in THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR with him. He won at least one Oscar. His history fits with this.

Natalie Wood. I've mentioned here before that her mother allegedly "granted" Natalie's virginity to Sinatra in exchange for his contacts and help climbing the ladder. Can't be proven of course, but I would absolutely believe it of him.

I concur with the Natalie Wood guess. But, in the 1950s, only a few leading men were influential enough to choose their own co-stars. I think it more likely that her "lovers" were producers and directors. Nicholas Ray ('Rebel Without A Cause') was one. She was 16. He allegedly went through the same routine with James Dean and Sal Mineo. As a child, she was under contract at RKO, In her early teens she moved between various studios and ABC TV series. I think she signed with Warners in 1954 (aged 15).

Steve McQueen, Natalie Wood's co-star in Love With a Proper Stranger, was an Oscar nominee for The Sand Pebbles. He was also abused as a child, which presumably contributed to his violent and misogynistic behavior.

The story of her mother's pimping provide's context for Kirk Douglas's particularly vile behavior and Wood's response (or lack of response).

'Wood's very Russian mother said from the outset that "I raised my daughter to be a movie star". This wildly narcissistic, overpowering, often unhinged woman would be an ongoing, toxic presence in her daughter's life.

Her ambitions for her daughter also meant that she turned a blind eye when the-then 45-year-old director, Nicholas Ray, seduced her then 16-year-old daughter. …'

Natalie grabbed control of her career in her late teens from that awful mother. Any "pimping" on the casting couch would've been while Natalie was still a young teen in the 50's. Nic Ray ("Rebel") for sure.

Poor Nat stayed in therapy for the rest of her life.

Her wonderful mother also once pulled the wings off of a butterfly to make Natalie cry for the camera when she was a kid. She makes Dena Lohan look like Mary Poppins.

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